Enterprise content management (ECM) covers a broad range of applications, including document management (DM), Web content management (WCM), records management (RM), digital asset management (DAM), search of managed content, and the like. A content management system (CMS) suitable for managing the various content items that an enterprise produces or generates, retains or otherwise stores, manipulates or modifies, etc. can support the requirements of one or more of such applications, and optionally other requirements, to provide a coherent solution in which content and management processes are capable of accessing content across a variety of applications subject to access controls, permissions, and the like. An “enterprise” can generally refer to an organization, such as for example a business or company, a foundation, a university, or the like, and can have content requirements related to one or more business processes, content uses, etc.
A CMS manages the actual digital binary content in a content item, the metadata that describes a context of each content item, associations between a content item and other content or content items, a place and classification of a content item in a repository, indexes for finding and accessing content items, etc. The CMS can also manage processes and lifecycles of content items to ensure that this information is correct. The CMS can further manage one or more processes (e.g. business processes, workflows, or the like) for creating, capturing, storing, manipulating, editing, and distributing content items, as well as all parts of a content item lifecycle (e.g., how long a content item is retained, what actions are taken after the end of a retention period, etc.).
A CMS for use in enterprise content management can include one or more of document management tools, applications, and interfaces to support general office work, search, and discovery. Workflow management capabilities of a CMS can support numerous business processes, optionally including, but not limited to, case management, review, and approval. Collaboration applications and services of a CMS can support the collaborative development of information and knowledge in the creation and refinement of content and documents. Web content management services of a CMS, which can be scalable, can support the delivery and deployment of content from the enterprise to its customers. Records management capabilities of a CMS can capture and preserve records based upon government-approved or other standards. A standards-based platform can also provide access to applications that use these standards, such as publishing, image management, email management, etc.
Services and controls for managing content of a CMS can include features such as metadata management, version control, lifecycle management, workflow, search, associations to other content, tagging, commenting, etc. that allow users of the CMS to find desired content items among very large content collections that can span multiple parts of an enterprise. Accuracy and consistency of the information can also be ensured, even for very large content collections across an enterprise. Content and other information in a CMS can be presented, published, etc. through the Web or any other channel appropriate to allow users to access that information.
Content management system repositories can also include the ability to synchronize content items maintained in a CMS repository with copies of these content items retained at one or more client machines. An example of this approach can include a local client synchronization application that executes on the one or more client machines, which can include but are not limited to desktop or laptop computers, mobile devices (smart phones, tablets, personal data assistants, or other mobile computer devices), or other machines having at least intermittent access to the CMS repository over a network connection (e.g. a local area network, a wide area network, a cellular data connection, the Internet, or the like, or combinations thereof). The local client synchronization application can synchronize a content item stored in the CMS repository with a copy of the content item stored on a local storage device (e.g. a hard drive, flash memory, random access memory, optical media, other magnetic media, or the like) associated with the client machine. A local storage device associated with the client machine can be integrated within the client machine, connected to the client machine as a peripheral device, accessible to the client machine over a networked connection, etc.
As used herein, content items can refer to any of files, folders or other directory structures, business processes, data objects, or any combination of one or more of such items or other similar or equivalent items. Examples of content items that can be managed by a CMS can include documents, images, photos, Web pages, records, XML documents, other unstructured or semi-structured files, etc. Content items retained in a CMS can also include directory structures such as folders, file trees, file plans, or the like, which can provide organization for multiple content items in addition to storing or otherwise representing relationships between content items, etc. Additionally, the approaches described herein for synchronizing file events occurring to content items stored at a CMS repository with those occurring to local copies of the content item at one or more client machines can be used by local client synchronization applications designed to synchronize content and/or metadata as well as more specialized clients, such as for example, a case management application running at a client machine that subscribes to all content items in a file set or other grouping of content items related to a specific case that are stored in one or more CMS repositories and that works to maintain local copies of those content items in proper synchronization with the content items in one or more CMS repositories.
In some examples, the local client synchronization application can communicate with the CMS repository to cause locking (e.g. allowing read-only access but not write access, allowing no access, etc.) of a content item at the CMS repository when a local copy of the content item is being edited or viewed via the local client synchronization application on the client machine. In other examples, locking of the content item at the CMS repository does not occur on opening or viewing of the local copy at the client machine. In these or other alternatives, locking of the local copy of a content item at the client machine can occur when the content item at the CMS repository is being edited, viewed, etc. Regardless of the access controls in place for the local copy or the content item itself, when changes to either of the content item or the local copy are saved, those changes are generally transmitted between the client machine and the CMS repository to maintain synchronization between the copy and the content item. This transmitting of saved changes generally occurs via the local client synchronization application initiating communication with the CMS repository to inquire whether changes have occurred to any content items at the CMS repository for which the client machine currently maintains a copy.